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AVON — Mauricio Cadavid, of Avon, said Hoshino therapy is something that cannot really be explained, only experienced. The acupressure-style bodywork is a treatment method created by Tomezo Hoshino in Japan and it focuses on 270 basic points that lie along the tendons.

“The stimulation of the points is with a whole hand contact, as opposed to just using the thumb,” Cadavid said. “Which is what separates us from traditional acupressure.”

The effectiveness of a standard 60-minute session comes from the systematic work with the specific tendon points all over the body. The pressure is firm, even uncomfortable at times, yet it is what Cadavid said creates space between joints, which helps achieve physical alignment. The method is designed to alleviate pain.

“I adjust my pressure to each person individually,” he said. “I don’t work on anybody the same, especially in my sense of sensitivity towards their tissue. It takes years, decades, to develop the sensitivity not to hurt people.”

Precise pressure

In one particularly intense moment of sensation a Hoshino session, Cadavid told me to take a deep breath. I focused on a large inhale, followed by an exhale and a mental intention to surrender the tension of the tendon. He explained how tendons either contract or relax, and his coaching as to how I should breathe helped to relieve resistance in my adductor area on my inner thigh.

Cadavid applied deep and meticulous pressure to my tendons. I found the treatment both invigorating and balancing; to say I felt “symmetrical” after the session may sound like an irrelevant geometry metaphor, but I did feel complete symmetry.

Cadavid has been practicing Hoshino therapy for 14 years; his training began in Miami. He said his knowledge constantly progresses with the diversity of his patrons and that Hoshino has helped relieve many of his clients of their pain, including a woman who suffers from muscular dystrophy.

“The next six years of my development is working towards mastery — getting to the point where I can help severe conditions like major herniated disks, Rheumatoid arthritis, stenosis of the spine, severe sciatica, whiplash and injury rehabilitation,” he said.

Since the bodywork is entirely relative to each individual, Cadavid said that people with a severe situation — if they can’t sleep or sit down, or if a compressed nerve is very painful — should have treatments done once or twice a week. For those who are just looking for physical maintenance, he recommends a treatment once or twice a month, or on an as-needed basis.

“My promotional materials, my words — they don’t do it justice,” Cadavid said. “Nothing will ever do this therapy justice. In fact, the Hoshino slogan says a lot: ‘Nothing surpasses the hands.’ It’s not needles, not the knife, not the drugs, not even self-help ... because at one point or another, it’s the hands that make a difference.”